By Maggie Samole / Sports editor

History seemed to repeat itself Saturday night as the Pittsburgh Panthers made another early exit from the NCAA tournament.

The Panthers don’t have a problem reaching the national championship tournament, but have struggled to advance past the opening rounds in recent years. This year proved to be no different as they were upended by the No. 5 Michigan State Spartans, 65-54.

Compared to their first round game against Oral Roberts, the first half of Saturday’s game was relatively low scoring as they managed to net only 28 points. Michigan State led by two at the half after shooting a blistering 48 percent from the field compared to Pitt’s 31 percent.

It took nearly two minutes for either team to score in the second half. However, when the Spartans’ Goran Suton made a layup at the 18:16 mark, he sparked an 8-0 run for Michigan State to open their lead to 10. Pitt didn’t score in the second half until over five and a half minutes elapsed, when DeJuan Blair sank a jumper from the paint.

Pitt chipped away at Michigan State’s double-digit lead to tie it at 42 points apiece with 10:20 remaining. They actually took the lead on a Sam Young layup for the first time since midway through the first half at the 9:41 mark.

The lead see-sawed back to the Spartans 39 seconds later, however, when Kalin Lucas sank a free throw after a foul by Ronald Ramon.

Michigan State would never relinquish their lead. The Panthers came within one as Levance Fields sank two from the charity stripe, but that’s as close as they would get. As the game clock dwindled, the Panthers tried fouling the Spartans to get the ball back and score, but Michigan State’s lead ballooned to 11, the ultimate margin of victory.

Fields led a trio of Panthers to reach double figures with 19 points. Young and Blair added 15 and 10, respectively. Drew Neitzel of Michigan State led all scorers with 21 points.

The loss ended the collegiate careers of Ramon, Keith Benjamin and Mike Cook. Pitt reached the Sweet Sixteen last year before losing to eventual Final Four participant UCLA 64-55.